2006-03-22

Since last spring when the Xbox 360 was first announced, one of the biggest concerns was that it would be too expensive for most game developers to create games for the next-generation console.

In the end, it's hard to judge whether those concerns were valid, since the Xbox launched with a pretty solid lineup of games. However, almost all of those games were published by the big dogs of the industry: Electronic Arts, Activision, Sega and the like. Not so many mom and pop-type development shops were in the mix.

But at the Game Developers Conference here on Tuesday, the rumor is that Microsoft plans on announcing Wednesday a developers kit that would make it possible for anyone to build games for the console, or for PCs, and that the kit will cost only about $100.

2006-03-16

What happened to dynamic range? That's a question that should be asked of record labels, producers, artists, and last but not least, recording and mastering engineers. The question needs to be asked because we're the ones responsible for what's happened to our music. The music we listen to today is nothing more than noise with a beat. It's not because it isn't good music. It's because it lacks dynamic range. When music lacks dynamic range, it lacks punch, emotion, and clarity. The record industry insists on blaming Napster, MP3s, CD burners, and a host of others for the lack of CD sales. While there is some truth to their constant whining, they only have themselves to blame for the thievery that's going on among consumers. I'm not an advocate of that thievery. No one has the right to steal someone else's property. However, the music industry needs to reevaluate what it considers to be good music. The music available to the consumer today isn't musical at all. It's best described as anti-music. It's anti-music because the life is being squashed out of it through over compression during the tracking, mixing, and mastering stages. It's simply, non musical. It's no wonder that consumers don't want to pay for the music that's being produced today. It's over priced and sounds bad. Our musical heritage is being threatened by this anti-music. It's time for all of us in the music industry to wake up!